


And Then There Were None

by friedlieb_ferdinand_runge



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Character Study, Gen, I Just Really Love Grace, Ten Little Soldiers, Writing Exercise, based off a poem, kind of, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-02 03:11:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17879984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friedlieb_ferdinand_runge/pseuds/friedlieb_ferdinand_runge
Summary: They were all broken in the end.





	And Then There Were None

**Author's Note:**

> This was an experiment I wanted to do, I'm not sure how well it turned out but I hope you guys like it!

**_Ten little Soldier boys went out to dine;_ **

**_One choked his little self and then there were nine._ **

 

None of them really knew what had happened that night. Just what Luther had told them when he’d come home, bloody and beaten (not unusual) with a limp Ben in his arms (very unusual).

 

“The monsters won” he told them. Except the men who’d started the whole mess were in jail. So what monsters was he really talking about?

 

Allison asked.

 

Luther didn’t answer.

 

**_Nine little Soldier boys sat up very late;_ **

**_One overslept himself and then there were eight._ **

 

Tea and toast. It was almost funny. The great Sir Reginald, dying over tea and toast in bed, probably only half awake.

 

Diego snorted, it  _ was  _ funny. Especially if what Klaus had said was true. Because that meant  _ The great Sir Reginald  _ killed himself for a cause he could’ve prevented. If only he’d been a better man, a better father.

 

**_Eight little Soldier boys traveling in Devon;_ **

**_One said he’d stay there and then there were seven._ **

 

He’d been the first to leave. A spot in the police academy and a great girl at his side, Diego didn’t need The Academy, he didn’t need his siblings or Pogo or his father.

 

Grace had been harder to leave.

 

But in the end he did, because she told him it was okay and because he knew it was. He was doing this for himself, the first thing he’d ever done for himself. And goddammit if it didn’t feel good.

 

**_Seven little Soldier boys chopping up sticks;_ **

**_One chopped himself in halves and then there were six._ **

 

L.A. Stardom. Patrick.

 

The Academy. Home. Luther.

 

It was easy for a while, to split her time. She could be shooting scenes by day, prowling the streets with her siblings the next. No one would tell her no. No one  _ could. _

 

But it grew exhausting. And Luther was distant. And Patrick felt so good.

 

So she stopped splitting her time, she stopped caring about her childhood. She left. And she never looked back. (Just occasionally, when the moon was full, up.)

 

**_Six little Soldier boys playing with a hive;_ **

**_A bumblebee stung one and then there were five._ **

 

Everyone had moved on. Left The Academy behind, their father behind, left him behind. 

 

He shouldn’t have gone in alone, but what else could he do? He couldn’t call any of them, they had their own lives. 

 

No. He was Number One! He didn’t need them.

 

But god did that needle hurt when the ghost of it lodged itself in his chest every night. 

 

**_Five little Soldier boys going in for law;_ **

**_One got into Chancery and then there were four._ **

 

It wasn’t a full ride. It barely covered the books. Vanya took it. She took the crap scholarship for a crap college in the crap part of town because if it got her out it was worth it.

 

Looking down at her violin, bleached by the power emitting from her body. Vanya found herself missing the dark wood. 

 

No matter. It was nothing. This was nothing. 

 

And for once, she couldn’t say the same for herself.

 

**_Four little Soldier boys going out to sea;_ **

**_A red herring swallowed one and then there were three._ **

 

“Idiot.” That was one word to describe himself as.

 

“Cocky.”

 

“Not ready.”

 

_ Far from an acorn. _

 

He shouldn’t have let himself take the bait. He shouldn’t have pushed aside every rational thought in his head for some outlandish goal of pleasing his father.

 

Because now they were all dead. And Dolores was right, the equations were off.

 

**_Three little Soldier boys walking in the zoo;_ **

**_A big bear hugged one and then there were two._ **

 

Love was an instinct linking every animal to one another. Driving even the most docile creatures to kill their own.

 

Pogo loved the children. That was his justification for doing the things he’d done. For standing aside as their childhoods were taken from them.

 

The world was too cruel. It wouldn’t understand them. They had to be different, they had to be heroes, they had to grow up fast. Too fast.

 

He loved them too much to let the cruel world tear them apart.

 

It was only as his last breath left him that he realized the world had won. And he had aided in its quest.

 

**_Two little Soldier boys playing with a gun;_ **

**_One shot the other and then there was One._ **

 

Klaus remembered screaming more than anything. He should probably see a therapist for that, he thought with a scoff, that the thing he remembered from his childhood was screaming.

 

Screaming in the mausoleum when the cold fingers etched their way under his skin.

 

Screaming when the ghosts woke him up at night. Wondering why, why hadn’t he saved them?

 

Screaming when Ben died.

 

On the worst days. Ben would apologize for showing up, broken and hurt and dead, so, miserably dead. Klaus would always shake his head and tell him it was okay.

 

If he was dead, he would want some company too.  

 

**_One little Soldier boy left all alone;_ **

**_He went out and hanged himself and then there were none._ **

 

Robots aren’t supposed to feel emotion. Yet Reginald had programmed some semblance of care and love inside of Grace’s hardwiring.

 

She liked to think she’d evolved. Because, if she hadn’t, then how come her mechanical heart ached every time one of her children walked out the door with a bag slung over their shoulder and a wordless goodbye? How come, when Ben had died, she’d had to have her systems rebooted, water from somewhere in her engineering damaging her eyes?

 

If she hadn’t evolved then how come she was lonely? Oh so lonely. She waved out the window at Diego and Klaus, somewhere in her mind, she registered they were yelling, something was wrong.

 

No. It was okay. Because they were okay. And the heat didn’t hurt. And the rubble felt like an embrace.

 

And she wasn’t lonely anymore.


End file.
